A recent 13G filing shows that Michael Novogratz’s Fortress Investment Group trimmed its passive stake in Cardiome Pharma Corp. (NASDAQ:CRME) to 981,600 shares from 2.5 million shares held previously. Fortress Investment currently holds 6.5% of the company’s common stock.
In November 2013, Fortress initiated position in Cardiome, disclosing ownership of 2.5 million shares, equal to almost 17% of the stock. Since the position has been revealed the stock has gained over 40%.
Cardiome Pharma Corp. (NASDAQ:CRME) is an integrated, commercial, specialty pharmaceutical company, based in Canada. Earlier this week, in a press release, Cardiome Pharma Corp. (NASDAQ: CRME) and CarCor Investment Holdings LLC announced the closing of their previously announced prospectus offering of 1.5 million common shares for gross proceeds of $13.5 million and 1.5 million shares in a secondary offering from CarCor for gross proceeds of $13.5 million both at roughly $9 per common share, for a combined offering of approximately $27.0 million. The company intends to use the net proceeds of the primary offering for working capital and general corporate purposes, including to fund expansions in Europe and other parts of the world.
Cardiome and CarCor have granted the underwriters an over-allotment option to purchase, pro rata from each of Cardiome and CarCor, up to an additional 15% or an aggregate of up to 450,000 common shares of the offering on the same terms and conditions, exercisable in whole or in part at any time for a period of 30 days following closing of the offering.
Analysts at Canaccord Genuity upgraded shares of Cardiome Pharma Corp (NASDAQ:CRME) to a buy rating from its previous hold rating. R.F Lafferty started coverage on the stock with a ‘buy’ recommendation with a target price of $9 per share.
Other significant stakeholders of Cardiome Pharma Corp include Phill Gross and Robert’s Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management, which holds 1.3 million shares, followed by Casey Nelson’s Alistair Capital, with ownership of 917,000 shares. Next up is Renaissance Technologies, led by billionaire Jim Simons, which owns approximately 218,900 shares of the pharma company.
Fortress Investment Group began as a private equity firm in 1998. It was founded by Wesley R. Edens, a former partner at BlackRock Financial; Robert Kauffman, a managing director at UBS; and Randal A. Nardone, also a managing director at UBS. Princeton graduates Michael Novogratz and Pete Briger, both former partners at Goldman Sachs, were brought in four years later to run Fortress Investment’s hedge funds as well as its new real estate-related investments and debt securities. The fund is heavily weighted towards the financial and healthcare sectors. It had $6.5 billion in its equity portfolio at the end of last year.
Last month, Fortress Investment upped its position in Brookdale Senior Living Inc. (NYSE:BKD) to 20.3 million shares from 17.6 million held earlier. The new position amounts to 16.3% of the company’s common stock.
Some of the largest investments of the fund as at the end of the fourth quarter of 2013 include Nationalstar Manufacturing Holdings Inc (NYSE:NSM) in which Fortress owns approximately 67.8 million shares worth $2.5 billion. The fund also holds 73.4 million shares of Springleaf Holdings Inc. (NYSE:LEAF) with a reported value of $1.9 billion.
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